


No Lone Wolves

by merriman



Category: Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
Genre: Children, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Imaginary Friends, Or Are They Imaginary After All?, The Wild Rumpus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-26 13:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20390443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merriman/pseuds/merriman
Summary: Max is all grown up but his daughter is a wild thing, like all children are.





	No Lone Wolves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveradept](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/gifts).

The wolf suit was covered in dirt and bits of leaves and not a few jam stains on the chest just under the chin. The tail was bedraggled and one of the ears flopped down. Two buttons had come undone and there was a hole on the heel of one foot. When Max found it, the wolf suit was packed away into a box with some of his other boyhood things. There was a foil crown and a toy sailboat and some twigs and a soft blanket the color of the ocean and Max took them all out and brought them downstairs along with several other boxes he'd found in the attic of his parents' house. 

Moving was always a chore.

"Oh yes, those are the ones," his mother said when she saw the boxes. "They're all from your old bedroom, dear." 

Max didn't bother looking in the other boxes. He already knew what was in them. There would be action figures and bits of string and an old baseball and some books he'd keep for sentimental reasons. There would be foil stars that he'd hung on his walls and kept when his mother made him take them down to plaster over the holes he'd made. There would be toys he'd never played with but which had been gifts, so he'd kept them on shelves, like a museum.

Perhaps there would also be some stuffed animals. He wasn't sure. Perhaps he'd look later. Perhaps not. Perhaps they would go up into his own attic, to be found again by his daughter when it came time for her to help him move. The thought was instantly depressing and so Max turned instead to the box with the wolf suit.

"Here, look at this," he said to his mother, showing her the wolf suit she'd made for him so long ago.

She lifted the suit out carefully, finding all the imperfections, both large and small. She found the jam stains and the hole in the foot and the missing buttons and the floppy ear. Her fingers ran over a patch on the elbow where there had once been a tear. 

"Goodness," she said, looking it over. "I remember when you barely ever took this off. I had to take it from you while you were asleep to wash it and mend it. I suppose I never got around to mending these bits when you outgrew it." She folded it back up and set it on top of the box. "Why don't you leave it with me," she said. "I'll freshen it up for Marina's birthday."

Max left the wolf suit with his mother, but he took everything else home and stashed it all in the upstairs hallway, to move to the attic some time when he felt like getting out the ladder.

* * *

Marina's birthday dawned bright and sunny and Max had woken up at the crack of dawn to help decorate the back yard for the party. They had guests coming - children from Marina's preschool class and their parents - and they had games and food and little bags full of cheap plastic toys and paper crowns to give out. The cake was already made and the refreshments were ready and by the time the first guests were almost due, Marina was refusing to come out of her room.

"Marina, sweetie, it's your birthday party," Max's wife, Carmen, was saying through Marina's bedroom door when Max came up the stairs. His wife looked at him and shrugged. 

Max shrugged back. If Marina didn't want to come out it was her loss - the cake and presents would be there later but her friends would have to go home eventually.

Carmen sighed and put her hand on the doorknob just as the doorbell rang.

"Crap," she muttered, though Max was fairly sure that it was still loud enough for Marina to hear through the door. "That must be the Farleys. They're always early. I swear, every clock in their house must be ten minutes ahead. Will you deal with her?"

Max shrugged again. "I'll try," he said as Carmen hurried by to go down and greet their early guests. Once she was gone, he sat down on the floor next to Marina's door.

"When I turned five I pulled the tablecloth off the table," he said through the door. "I broke two plates and a vase and got water everywhere in Grandma's dining room. But the cake was safe. Grandma hadn't brought it out to the table yet, so I still got to have cake."

There was silence for a moment, then Max heard the door open. When he glanced to the side, Marina was looking through an inch-wide gap.

"You still got cake?" she asked.

"Of course, it was my birthday," Max said. "But I had to help clean up the water and after everyone went home I went to bed right away."

"That was the year you got a certain special present, if I remember correctly," his mother said from the stairs. 

Max looked up and smiled at her. "It was," he agreed. "Five years old is a big deal, so I got a big present."

Marina opened her door wider and launched herself at her grandmother. Max's mother caught her up in a hug and swung her around before setting her down and getting a good look at her. Seeing Marina now, Max could tell that she had been dressed in the outfit she'd picked out for her birthday party, but then she'd apparently changed her mind several times and was now wearing two skirts, a pair of jeans, both a sweater and a cardigan over what looked like two shirts, and two different shoes. Her hair was a wild tangle, but then it was always a wild tangle. He was pretty sure she got that from him.

"Do I get a big present?" Marina asked, looking from Max to his mother and back again. 

"Well, I don't know," Max said. "Will you come downstairs for the party? Just a little bit, to see who came and say thank you for the presents?"

Marina didn't answer right away and Max got the impression that she was about ten seconds away from racing back into her room and slamming the door. But before she could do that, his mother crouched down and looked at her.

"Looks like you need a good birthday outfit," she said to her granddaughter. "And I have just the thing."

From inside a bag she'd been carrying, Max's mother produced a lumpy package wrapped in brightly striped paper. Then she produced another, smaller one, and handed it to Max.

"And one for your father. Let's go open them in your room."

The state of Marina's room lent backup to Max's earlier suspicions about Marina's wardrobe choices. There were clothes strewn around the room and two of her dresser drawers were completely empty. As they walked in, Max regarded the package in his hands. It was wrapped in the same paper as Marina's and had a little bow on it. Marina's had a big bow full of curled ribbons and she was already tearing at it while Max's mother cleared a spot on her bed. 

"Let's see what we've got, here," she was saying as Marina ripped the paper open. Whatever was inside was white and furry and Max had a feeling he knew exactly what it was. When the tail emerged, he knew he was right. It was a wolf suit, maybe the same wolf suit, cleaned up and patched and it looked as if the ears had been entirely replaced. It was a great deal cleaner than he'd expected it to ever get again.

"I replaced a lot of it," his mother confided as Marina shook it out and squealed in delight.

"It's like Daddy's!" she said, trying to pull it on over her shoes and skirts before Max stopped her and helped her take her shoes off.

"It's just like Daddy's," he agreed. "Like in the pictures in Grandma's album."

His mother took over getting Marina out of the extra layers until she was down to the jeans and a sequined t-shirt that proclaimed her to be a mermaid. Then, while she helped Marina into the wolf suit, Max opened his package. He was momentarily confused when he got the paper open and saw white furry fabric - there was no possible way it was a wolf suit he could fit into now and Marina had the new and improved version of his old one - but then he realized what it was when one of the ears flopped down.

"I took the old hood off and expanded it," his mother said, taking it out of his hands and turning it over to show him where she'd added fabric. "So you can have adventures together." She reached up and pulled it over Max's head like a hat.

Marina giggled when she looked up at him. "Daddy's a wolf!" she said.

Max laughed. "So is Marina," he pointed out. "We make a good pair, kiddo. Now, do wolves like birthday parties?"

Marina growled at him. "Wolves love birthday parties!"

* * *

Neither Max nor Carmen could convince Marina to part with the wolf suit until bedtime. Her grandmother didn't even try, reminding Max that he had worn it for a week solid at one point. She wore it throughout the whole party, by some miracle only getting a little cake frosting on it, then insisted on putting it on again over her pajamas. She fell asleep with the curls of her hair escaping the hood to frame her face. 

With Marina in bed, Max and Carmen cleaned up after the party, carefully boxing up the leftover cake and folding some salvageable pieces of wrapping paper to use in craft projects. They took down the streamers from the back yard and packed up the leftover food and both fell into bed well ready to sleep like the dead after a long day full of children and sugar and toys that made far louder noises than should have been possible.

Max had been certain that he would sleep through his alarm, even, after a day that exhausting. But he didn't. He didn't even make it to dawn. Well before the sun rose, he woke in the night, the echoes of howls and growls and wild noises following from his dreams. Carefully, so as to not wake Carmen, he got out of bed and padded down the hall to Marina's room. The door was ajar and he peeked in and saw not a room, but a jungle. The bed was a moss-covered berm and the curtains were a tangle of vines and the toys by the door gave way to rocks and leaves the further into the room he looked. But when he tried to step into the room, it faded away, becoming nothing more than an empty bed and the same curtains and toys and clothes he'd seen that morning. Stepping back, he saw the jungle return. From somewhere beyond the walls of the house, beyond the trees and darkness, he heard a whoop and a laugh and a snarl, and he knew what he needed to do.

Somehow, Max managed not to trip on the stairs as he raced down and tore through the remnants of the party to find his wolf hat. He jammed it on his head, pulling the sides down over his ears, and climbed the stairs three at a time to get back to Marina's room. This time, when he stepped in, the jungle stayed. It even seemed to open up, welcoming him in.

Here was a tuft of fur. There was the print of a tiny foot. Here was a feather. There was the scrape of claws on a tree trunk. Max followed Marina's path through the trees and over streams and to a beach where a boat had been. The boat was now on the waves. Max could see it bobbing its way to an island. There was no other boat, so Max did what any good wild thing would do: He tied the flaps on his wolf hat under his chin, then dove into the water. 

He'd only been swimming for a few strokes when scales brushed his fingers, then something massive came up under him to lift him above the water. 

The sea serpent glared at Max and Max glared back at the sea serpent. They glared and glared and glared until the sea serpent hissed and ducked its head under the waves to carry Max to the island. Max hung on to the spiky scales on the sea serpent's back, then dove off when they reached the shore. 

Somewhere on the island, the wild rumpus was starting and Max knew he shouldn't miss it. He raced through the woods, crashing through branches and ripping through vines while the brambles tore at his pajamas. The wild rumpus sounded like it was always just ahead of him, right past the next stand of trees, but when he got there, all he found were footprints and mud and fallen leaves. 

Finally, when his feet were sore and his pajamas were filthy and his wolf hat was slipping down over his forehead, Max stopped in a clearing and stomped his foot.

"The wild rumpus is over!" he shouted, and his voice echoed through the forest, silencing all else in its wake. 

A few moments later, a wild thing poked its head through the trees.

"It's the king!" it called back into the woods. "He's here!"

Max watched by the light of the moon overhead as one by one the wild things came out from the woods. The last one was the biggest, and had Marina on its fur-covered shoulders. When Marina saw Max, she clambered up onto the wild thing's head.

"You ruined the rumpus!" she shouted down at him, hands on her hips. She had the hood of her wolf suit - Max's wolf suit - up over her head, but her hair was escaping as a mane of curls.

"How can you have a rumpus without the king?" Max asked.

"But we haven't had a king in a long time," the wild things said. And then there was stomping and growling and snarling and Marina and Max stomped and growled and snarled along with the wild things. And when everyone was done stomping and growling and snarling, Max was still the king, glaring at all the wild things and staring into their eyes until they had to look away. 

The only wild thing left was Marina, who climbed down off the head of the wild thing she'd been riding and glared up at her father.

Max glared right back.

Then Max laughed a wild laugh.

Then Marina laughed a wild laugh.

Then the wild things all laughed their wild laughs. They all rolled on the ground in the dirt and the leaves until they couldn't breathe and tears streamed from their eyes.

"I haven't been your king in a long time," Max agreed when they were all done laughing and crying and rolling around. "I think it's high time you had a new leader. An Empress!"

Max stood and picked up Marina, carefully seating her on his shoulders. "Wild things! Meet Empress Marina! Long may she reign!"

Marina blew them kisses from Max's shoulders and they marched through the woods, the wild things trailing behind them in a noisy, messy, wild parade. They shouted and howled and whooped and growled and snarled and made all sorts of trouble until they reached the beach with the boat. Max set Marina down and she ran to the biggest wild thing and hugged its furry legs.

"Will you come back?" the wild things asked.

"Of course," Marina told them. "I'm the Empress! I'll eat you up!"

The wild things cheered and kept cheering as Max and Marina got into the boat and sailed off, over the waves, until they reached the far shore. They left the boat on the beach for Marina to use some other wild night, then they walked through the jungle, hand in hand, until they saw the nightlight by Marina's bed and then there was no more jungle, there was a bedroom covered in clothes and toys. 

Max helped Marina into bed and tucked her in.

"Can we go back tomorrow?" Marina mumbled. 

"We'll see," Max said. "Will you be wild tomorrow?"

Marina growled sleepily in response and Max nodded.

"We'll go back tomorrow, then," he promised her. "Good night, my wild thing."


End file.
